Analysis: Xi takes over Coast Guard and gives it a license to fire

Katsuji Nakazawa is a Tokyo-based senior staff writer and editorial writer at Nikkei. He spent seven years in China as a correspondent and later as China bureau chief. He is the 2014 recipient of the Vaughn-Ueda International Journalist prize for international reporting.

TOKYO -- China's new Coast Guard Law allowing the patrol force to fire at foreign ships in its waters represents a political victory for President Xi Jinping and turns these vessels into the equivalent of a second navy.